Gum & Candlesticks Episode 1
by celticgothhardy
Summary: A new way to get high and a strange robbery take place as Mac Taylor gets messages from a stalker out for revenge. My first fan fiction. I changed the title when I realized someone else had already used Trust and it doesn't fit. Hi.
1. Strange Items

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI New York. CBS and all the producers do.

Summary: A new way to get high and a strange robbery take place while Mac Taylor gets mysterious messages.

--

He hated the man. He had been the only one to figure out the plan. Now his friend was dead and he had lost fifteen years. Of course he tracked the man's career. Watched him as he became the leader of one of the best crime labs in the nation. He smiled when the man lost his wife. He released his anger when the man was able to stop the mob after they broke in. He had to do it the day before his release when he learned that the man had saved the last victim of the Cabbie Killer.

He couldn't give into his anger now. He had to wait. He couldn't bring attention to himself yet. He held up his phone at the man exiting the SUV from the driver's side. He took several pictures with the phone until the man went into the building. "We have unfinished business, Detective Taylor."

* * *

Mac Taylor walked in to see a small pool of blood. A middle-aged man was holding an ice pack to his head while a medic was checking him over. Danny Messer was dusting the glass of a broken display case. Jennifer Angell was talking to a man dressed in a tuxedo. The bow tie was undone and hanging from his neck. She finished talking with the man and went over to Mac. "Story is the butler heard a knock at the door. He answered and three guys rushed in. One knocked him out. Didn't wake up until the owner was standing over him with a washcloth."

"Any word on what exactly was taken?"

"From what we can see so far: electronics, jewelry, silverware. There was also a tapestry that was hanging in the main bedroom." Angell stopped for a minute. "Now, the electronics you can pawn, along with the jewelry and the silverware. What was the tapestry for?"

"Seeing from some of the rare items this guy has, it could be possible the robbery was planned. The electronics and everything else taken was just a decoy. The tapestry was the real target." Mac set to work on the wall where the tapestry sat.

Danny went to start dusting a vase near the overturned lamp. "Stop, I don't want anything foreign on that object," the owner yelled. He tried to rush over and pick it up when Angell stepped in his way.

"This is a crime scene. If you can't behave properly, I will have to escort you off the premises." The owner got into a huff and walked out the door.

"Sounds like Flack's starting to rub off on you." Danny was dusting the side facing up. Angell let out a laugh and then went out to start collecting witness statements. The majority of the work was dusting, though both men came across blood far away from the butler's and thought that it may belong to the robber. Danny took a reference sample from the butler while Mac took fingerprints from both the butler and the owner, though the owner was less than cooperative.

"And exactly why do I have to give you my fingerprints?"

"This is to rule out your fingerprints from the others we collected." The man sighed and held out his hand. He muttered a few choice words before Mac got his hand done. He went into the bathroom to wash off his hands.

They walked out of the building when Mac's cell phone began going off. He saw that he had received a message. He opened it to see it was a picture of him walking into the building he just exited. There was a caption beneath the picture. "Taylor on his way to work." The number that sent the call was unknown.

--

This is my first fan fiction.

I don't know anything really. Review if you want to. I'm not pressuring.


	2. A New Way

Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

* * *

Stella Bonasera stood over a body in between a restaurant and a bowling alley. She didn't know what was worse: the smell of the rotting food or the remnants of someone's dinner regurgitated from last night. She photographed the body before bending to pry out several gum sticks that he had clutched in his hand. She slipped them into a paper folder before checking out his hand.

"All right, no one knows who the victim is. A couple of the regulars at the bowling alley noticed he would meet someone here at least once a week before going someplace. They don't know where," Don Flack informed. He stood a few feet behind the CSIs.

"No defensive wounds on the arms, but there could be some underneath the clothes. Four gunshot wounds in the back. No stippling, so they were father than four feet away," Sheldon Hawkes listed. Two workers with the coroner's office brought over the gurney. While they were packaging and strapping, Hawkes went over to where he thought the killer had shot from.

"I have a gun. Recently been fired, too." Lindsay said, holding it up. It was a standard 9mm standard semi-automatic handheld. She made sure the safety was on before putting it in the bag. Hawkes picked up a shell casing that was three feet from the area he was looking at. He bagged it before trying to find the others.

"Okay, Lins, take the gun back and find out if the bullets match. Hawkes, when you get back, join Sid for an overview and get the bullets."

"What are you going to do?" Flack asked, interested.

"I'm going to collect more things under the body, then head back to find out why this guy was holding onto the gum."

"Why is the gum important?"

"It was important to this guy that he had a death grip on it before death."

--

Lindsay was in the lab, waiting for the bullets when Hawkes walked in with a bag that was clinking. "Oh, are those for me?"

"Four bullets, one mangled so badly that it's useless, but the others should work." Lindsay shook out the bullets. One of the bullets had almost folded in on itself. The others had flattened heads. She picked on at random and placed it in the second place below the microscope. She took to the computer to check the strata. The computer matched the bullets be overlaying the second bullet onto the first. "We have a match," Hawkes concluded.

Stella was walking by the lab when Lindsay pulled her in. "The bullets matched. We have our weapon."

"Please don't tell me that's the only news."

"While waiting for Hawkes, I ran the gun through databases to see if we could get a match. A couple of cases related to drug deals came up. One was a user; the other was someone trying to get on a gang's territory."

"Suspects?"

"Plenty, but not enough evidence to prosecute. Here's the list."

"Thanks," she said, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

Lindsay noticed. "What?"

"I figured out why he was holding those sticks." She went into the lab. After putting on her lab coat and gloves, she took two of the sticks. The first one, she took out the gum and gathered all the dust around it. She made a solution and handed it off to one of the lab techs, telling them to run it through the database. She took the other stick, ripped it in half and put it under the microscope. She moved in on the piece when Hawkes and Lindsay came in.

"What did you find?" Hawkes asked.

"Look at the gum." Hawkes looked then he stepped aside to let Lindsay. "There are silver flecks in the gum. I think those are placed there in order to cut up the person's mouth."

"Why would you want to cut up the mouth?"

"To deliver the drug. This is a new way to get high."

* * *

Next: Back to Mac.

Also, I think I got the idea of the gum from an episode of Law and Order: CI. Which I also don't own. Feel free to review. Or just comment on the interesting cases.


	3. Evading Arrest

Thanks to all the people that are reviewing and those that are at least reading this.

Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Basic spoiler stuff for up to the middle of the fourth season.

--

Mac looked quickly around at the people in the streets and on the sidewalks. No one in particular stuck out. No one had cameras out. No one even had the camera phones out to capture little things. He looked at the photo again and noticed that the clock behind him. "9:48. That was three hours ago. They didn't want me noticing them," he thought.

"Hey, Mac," Danny said, bringing his attention back down to earth. Mac climbed into the driver's seat and turned on the engine.

--

The man had been watching him. He took it with a smile to his face that Taylor couldn't recognize him. He took a couple of more pictures, even of one of Mac looking right at him. He smiled and kept a hold on them. "Not yet."

--

Mac was looking at the crime scene photos when Stella walked in. "How's it going Mac?"

"Fine. Do you know of any reason that a person would take a tapestry?"

"Don't know." She waited a minute before getting on the topic. "Danny noticed you spaced for a couple of minutes."

"It's nothing."

"Are you sure?" Mac didn't answer her. "All right, but if this gets any worse," she started.

"What could get worse? It's nothing, Stella."

"All right." She walked out.

Mac put down his head for a minute before getting back to the photos. He went over the description of the tapestry before something clicked in his head. He set down the folder and called Angell. "Detective Angell."

"Do you remember a case a few months back? Stolen family heirlooms from a …" He paused as he tried to think of the last name.

"Dulesnk. Stolen were several silver pieces, jewelry and a tapestry."

"Angell, what was the description of the tapestry?"

"Mid 19th century fabric which the painting of a Romanian prince was woven in. The name of the figure imprinted on the fabric was …"

"Vlad Tepes. Vlad the Impaler. Our victim had a stolen article." He hung up on Angell and called Danny.

"Messer."

"Danny, I need you to cross reference anything you see in the photos with previous robbery cases. If anything in particular sticks out, note it."

"What's going on Mac?"

"Our robbery victim may be a robber himself. He had a tapestry that someone else claimed was stolen. Either that or he has a bad time with merchandise." Danny took a moment to realize it but Mac made a joke. A small one, but still a joke.

"Are you feeling okay Mac?"

"I'm fine. Check the items in the apartment." He ended the call. He brought up the photo again and tried to picture the exact moment. He was trying to imagine the area and all the people. Even in the still framing of his mind, nothing stood out.  
--

A couple of hours later, Danny was carrying a bunch of files to Mac's office. "You have matches to all these cases?"

"Not perfect matches, but based on sight only, they're close. Mac, this guy has over fifty pieces that may be linked to robberies as far as California."

"What's the closest one that we can get a warrant for?" Danny picked a file out and the photo to go along with.

"Pair of 16th century candlestick holders. Last remaining pair in the world according to the original owners."

"Talk to Angell. Get a rush on that warrant before the guy moves again."

--

Angell and Danny were back at the man's apartment with the warrant ready. "Mr. Geeston, we have a warrant for the apartment," Angell yelled through the door. They heard a crash and pounding feet.

"He's running." Danny went back down the stairs to meet up with Geeston. Angell called for a patrol car then broke down the door and proceeded to chase him in the apartment. Geeston had a fire escape in his room and climbed down it after hearing Angell.

He was down on the ground when Danny came out the side door. He ran toward the street when Danny pulled out his gun. "Kevin Geeston, you're under arrest," Danny informed.

"For what? I thought someone was trying to break in," he smugly said.

Angell landed gracefully behind him and drew her weapon. "Kevin Geeston, you're under arrest."

"I already heard that part. What am I being arrested for?"

"Evading the police," Danny started.

"Resisting arrest," Angell added when she tried to cuff Geeston and he pulled his arm back.

"This is a 1200 dollar suit."

"Yeah, and those are ten dollar cuffs. Goes great with the outfit," Danny joked. Angell led him to the street. Danny went back up to the apartment and checked out the candlesticks. On the bottom of each was a maker's mark with the date and origin. He brought out the file on the candlesticks and referenced it.

Danny got his cell phone out and called Mac. "What do you have, Danny?"

"This guy's got the Telicon's candlesticks. The maker's mark and date match what was described."

"Anything else you can see?"

Danny looked around the apartment. "A couple of vases from a case three months ago, an antique table from about five months."

"Sounds like he has a lot of items."

"Yeah, I'm surprised we haven't caught him until his own place was robbed."

"Yeah, but I don't think he was expecting someone to rob him back and knock out his butler." Danny would have hit himself mentally but someone hit him physically. Danny let out a yell and collapsed on the floor. "Danny!" Mac yelled into the phone.

--

Yeah, it's a cliffhanger. I couldn't resist. Next: Stella, Lindsay and Hawkes go to a rave. Review if you please.


	4. The Rave

D: Still don't own CSI NY. That belongs to CBS, and Jerry Bruckheimer, and all the producers on the show. The one thing I can claim is the original villains and victims (which aren't much).

We will get back to Mac and Danny soon.

* * *

"Your drug of the day is ecstasy," Adam Ross said, handing over the paper with the findings to Stella.

"The drug of choice for party people everywhere. Anything special we can use to pin to a dealer?"

"It had a similar component to a batch that was taken at a raid a few months ago. Not the same ratios, but close enough."

"So, same recipe, different maker. Thanks, Adam." Stella walked out into the hall where Hawkes was reading over his own report. "What do you got?"

"The shavings in the gum came back to stainless steel."

"So someone took silverware and ground it or chopped it to get little pieces to go through the gum."

"That's the basic idea. The small fragments won't be dislodged from the gum, so no harm would come from chewing it. The pieces would make small cuts in the mouth, which the powder could be absorbed into the bloodstream at a faster rate."

"The idea was to get something in that wouldn't draw attention. Ecstasy in tablets is known. You would know that bouncers to look for it and anything like it."

"So the gum was designed to get past people." Hawkes got a call on his cell phone and stepped into an empty room to take it. Stella kept walking and met Lindsay in front of the gun lab.

"I was going back over the case of the user that was shot. It turns out, the victim frequented raves a lot. Had the number that you could find information on."

"So our dealer is selling at raves." Lindsay went back into the lab while Stella kept walking. She pulled out her cell phone after getting an idea.

"Flack."

"Do you know anybody in narcotics?"

"Yeah, I know a couple of people."

"Can you talk to them and see if there are any raves coming up that may have drugs being sold?"

"Yeah."

"All right, thank you." Stella hung up.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Stella, Lindsay, Hawkes, Flack and twenty guys in narcotics were waiting outside of an abandoned warehouse. All were dressed in bulletproof vests.

"Remember, the dealer's going to be carrying gum. That's how the drug is going around now. Confiscate all gum sticks," the leader of the narcotics team yelled.

"All right, on my mark. First round is going in. Take down and round up the users and the dealers. Second round needs to check the corners. Then, you three come in and start searching what was left behind while we gather what we can," Flack ordered. The first round waited by the door.

Flack gave the command. The first ten guys went in with the leader. There was screaming and chaos going on when the second round went in. Stella, Lindsay and Hawkes went in to see that people were facing the wall. Several of the agents were patting down and pulling out sticks. They threw them to the tables they had positioned for that exact purpose.

"Hawkes, you take the first two tables. Lindsay, the second two please," Stella ordered. She followed Flack to the back room, where the narcotics leader had several men down on the ground.

"Ylass Helon, Trace Newby, James Grane and Victor Kingsley. Take your pick. Each have been taken down for distribution and selling of ecstasy."

"And all four had the gum in their pockets."

"This is just starting to spread, isn't it?" Flack asked. Stella didn't answer as she looked over the guys as she tried to pinpoint the one that shot the victim in the alleyway. The one that still didn't have a name.

* * *

Yes, my chapters are getting shorter. Next, we find out what happened to Danny.

_Voice off in the distance: _Hey, when am I getting into the story?

You're a major part of the third and fourth stories. (Yeah, third and fourth stories because my stories are acting more like episodes of the series.)


	5. The Apartment

D: Yeah, you get the drill; I don't own it.

Thank you to all that are reviewing and at least reading this.

* * *

Detective Angell first noticed an unusual amount of grunting coming from inside the apartment. She brought her gun in front of her and walked into the living room. Danny was struggling with the butler. The butler was holding a fire poker. Danny had his hand on the blunt end and was trying to get it away from him. "Freeze, put your hands up," she yelled, getting their attention. The butler let go of the poker and put his hands up, his face downcast. "I'm glad I brought extra cuffs with me." She handcuffed the guy and led him down to another patrol car.

Danny remembered he was still on the phone when he was hit. He picked it up to see that Mac had disconnected. He entered in the number and hit call. "Danny, what the hell happened?"

"The butler did it." Danny tried to joke, but the head wound made him wince. "Hit me over the head and proceeded to take the candlesticks. Somehow, I don't think he's just the guy's butler."

"Is your head okay?"

"It's fine. Where are you exactly?"

"Coming to the scene."

"Mac, I've got everything under control. Angell took the guy down with her and…"

"You are staying out of the apartment until someone else can be there to help clear the apartment with you. You got that?"

"Yeah, Mac." Danny picked up his kit and set it outside the hall. No one else came up the stairs until Mac.

"Are you sure you're okay to continue?"

"Fine. My head was hard enough to withstand most of it." Danny got out his gun and Mac put down his case and followed him into the apartment. They checked the whole apartment and found no one else hiding.

"I'm going to call for patrol officers outside of the door. Angell is also coming back to witness statements from the floor."

"Yeah, I'll get back to documenting the items." Danny went to the opposite side of the room away from the small drops of his blood and was going over a coffee table. Mac took the area Danny had been in. He took out several swabs and got samples from each of the drops. He then went over the poker, finding a paper bag big enough to envelop it without smudging anything.

"I have at least seven items that are stolen," Danny announced after an hour of cross checking items with the files.

"Make that fourteen. This is going to take too long without some help. I'm going to call for Adam." Mac walked out of the room for a minute. Danny got to another piece done when Detective Angell walked in.

"Where's Mac?"

"Bringing in more hands. What do you need?"

"Just bringing in the statements. The neighbors next door would complain of the two guys fighting during the middle of the night. No one else knew the guy because he kept to himself. Rent was paid on time, from a credit card. The credit card was paid off the next day."

"So, this guy was what, a living ghost?" Danny asked.

"More like someone that can cover their tracks." Mac walked into the room. "Adam's on his way here. He also said that the fingerprints matched several crimes across the U.S. Our 'victim' is Tacson Sims, a wanted robber. His partner in most of his crimes is Jeffery Hagglus. He's the butler. Both guys are in interrogation."

Adam walked in with a case. "Where do you want me?"

"Take the kitchen, Adam," Mac ordered. Adam walked into the kitchen. To say the place was spotless would be an underestimate. All appliances were in stainless steel. The counters were top of the line granite. The floor was in tile. The cabinets were glass and handles were metal. Adam set his case down and pulled out a couple of gloves. He checked the drawers for silverware and knives to compare first. He had about five down and then noticed one had blood on it. It wasn't just on the edge of the blood that you might get from nicking a hand. This was all the way to the handle. Adam grabbed a paper bag and carefully slid it in before going on to the other drawers.

After he was done with those, he checked the pantry. He went to take down some of the cans when the shelf slid backwards. "Hey, Mac. Did you guys check this out?" he yelled. Mac came up behind him with his flashlight out. He pointed it down the tunnel that Adam had just discovered.

"Keep clear of the door," he ordered. Adam backed into the kitchen. Mac walked through the tunnel until he came to a room. Several tools lie on the table. He checked to see if it was clear before letting Adam and Danny come in.

"All the nice digs and then you got this," Danny commented.

Adam was looking at the tools. "Lock picks, crowbars," he listed.

"All needed for breaking into places. Adam, why don't you take this room and anything you can find in it? Danny, take the kitchen," Mac ordered. Adam nodded and started to slip some of the tools into paper bags.

Mac went back out into the main room and decided that everything that could be connected to a past robbery case was collected. Naturally, he would go back over it before leaving. Now, he wanted to get the other rooms done while there was still daylight out.

They had the majority of the apartment done when the sun started setting. Mac came out into the living room to see them changing the officers at the door. He noticed a paper that had been swept under the cabinet. He reached down and picked it up. Adam walked in and watched for about thirty seconds before saying something. "I think these guys were planning another robbery. There was a bunch of blueprints hidden in the wall and several had marks on certain places."

"Do you have the blueprints out?"

"Yeah, I was trying to figure out the building. There are no identifying marks on the paper to say what building or give any other information." Mac went back into the secret room, where the blueprint was laid out on the table in the middle.

Mac looked it over for a couple of minutes. He didn't say anything. He took out his cell phone and called Angell. "Detective Angell."

"Give me five minutes to get back to the station. I know what they were planning next."

* * *

Yeah, it's been awhile. Thanks for being patient. I've been reading and laughing at a lot of other Fan Fiction. Review if you please. S'il vous plait.


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